ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 295 



Proper allowances ought to be made for the youth of this monarch, 

 whose spirits also, we may suppose, were much exhilarated by 

 the sport of the day ; but, at the same time, it is reasonable to 

 remark, that, whatever might be the occasions of Ken's first fall, 

 the subsequent ones seem to have been designed. The scullion 

 appears to have been an artful fellow, and to have seen the king's 

 foible, which furnishes an early specimen of that his easy softness 

 and facility of temper, of which the infamous Gaveston took such 

 advantages, as brought innumerable calamities on the nation, and 

 involved the prince at last in misfortunes and sufferings too 

 deplorable to be mentioned, without horror and amazement. 



LETTER III. 



FROM the silence of Domesday respecting churches, it has been 

 supposed that few villages had any at the time when that record 

 was taken ; but Selborne, we see, enjoyed the benefit of one : 

 hence, we may conclude, that this place was in no abject state 

 even at that very distant period. How many fabrics have suc- 

 ceeded each other since the days of Radfredrus the presbyter, we 

 cannot pretend to say \ our business leads us to a description of 

 the present edifice, in which we shall be circumstantial. 



Our church, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, consists 

 of three aisles, and measures fifty-four feet in length, by forty-seven 

 in breadth, being almost as broad as it is long. The present 

 building has no pretensions to antiquity, and is, as I suppose, 

 of no earlier date than the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. 

 It is perfectly plain and unadorned, without painted glass, carved 

 work, sculpture, or tracery. But when I say it has no claim to 

 antiquity, I would mean to be understood the fabric in general ; 

 for the pillars, which support the roof, are undoubtedly old, being 

 of that low, squat, thick order, usually called Saxon. These, 

 I should imagine, upheld the roof of a former church, which, 

 falling into decay, was rebuilt on those massy props, because 



